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On Thursday, December 15, 1994, Joann Katrinak and her three-month-old son, Alex, went missing from their Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, home. Four months later, when their bodies were found in a lonely patch of woods, the police would launch a three-year investigation leading to the arrest of Patricia Lynne Rorrer—a young mother who had never met either victim—as the monster responsible. In Pennsylvania’s first use of mitochondrial DNA in a criminal case, Patricia Rorrer was quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But did the jury make the right decision? Is Patricia Rorrer truly guilty? As new evidence continues to surface, including allegations of evidence tampering, that question requires an answer even more.

With a subject matter and storytelling style reminiscent of the hit podcast Serial, Convenient Suspect will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The book reveals information never before made public—information gathered directly from more than 10,000 official documents, including Pennsylvania State Police reports, FBI files, forensic lab results, and the 6,500-page trial transcript. After four years of intensive research, countless interviews with those involved, and hundreds of letters, phone calls, and personal visits with Patricia Rorrer, the truth about the evidence used to convict her can finally be revealed.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“In this riveting story of shoddy police work and prosecutorial overreach, Tammy Mal takes an already rickety double-murder case and blows it to pieces, building a compelling case that an innocent woman was put behind bars.” —Michael Fleeman, author of The Black Widower, Crazy for You, and Laci

“A methodical, clear-sighted, and deeply moving book. . . . Convenient Suspect seeks to right a terrible injustice that flies in the face of common sense and to show us how easily any of us might be ensnared in the same trap.” —Ken Klonsky, coauthor of Eye of the Hurricane and author of Freeing David McCallum

"Deserving of shelf space alongside such similar true-crime works as those by Ann Rule."—Booklist

About the Author

Tammy Mal is the only journalist to whom Patricia Rorrer has granted interviews. She has written countless articles for local newspapers and has appeared on Investigation Discovery’s Murder in Lehigh Valley: Keith Morrison Investigates, which chronicles the Patricia Rorrer story.

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I am appalled that Patricia Rorrer sits in a jail cell while those who put her there walk freely. She deserves freedom NOW and those responsible for the deceit that put her there should be fired and jailed. The Catasauqua Police Department, the Lehigh County District Attorney and the PA State Police should all be ashamed for what they did to this woman. FREE HER NOW!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I felt this was a very well written and a very well researched book on this very interesting case of a woman and her infant son being murdered. It seems that the police bungled the investigation from the beginning, evidence was mishandled, contaminated and switched. A woman who lived 500 miles away, Patricia Rorrer, an ex-girlfriend of the woman's husband was tried, convicted and sentenced to live without parole. The woman's husband, who was a suspect for a while, failed two polygraphs and had a third one but the results were not made known. I am convinced that Patricia Rorrer was wrongly convicted of a crime she did not commit. I just hope she gets a new trial.

I've spent a lot of time with Tammy Mal, talking and going over this case and just being part of her wonderful endeavor, my photos were used for the cover and in this book, it is truly a must-read, if you have any question about our justice system and wrongful convictions that happen way too often and could happen to you. My review after receiving one of the first copies of her book-- to be released NOV 1ST-------The latest book by Tammy Mal is more than just compelling it is enlightening. It is a magnificent accumulation of work. The time that was taken to research, investigate and put together this true story is overwhelming. With so much evidence never brought forth, evidence that never appeared in court, or the news. You will be astounded to see and finally, realize there may be an innocent woman behind bars while the real murderer is still out there.The hard to believe our justice system is not always right, not always going for the truth but for a conviction. Anyone who believes Patricia Rorrer is guilty must read this book, read it with an open mind, not just what the system has and wanted you to believe. If you believe she is innocent all the more reason to see the real truth behind what was fed to the public.This is the truth, the facts and the heart and soul of an author and an inmate brought to light- finally.This case has been on tv ID TV Investigation Discovery with Kieth Morrison and now picked up by Seattle group called Judges for justice who helped secure the release of Amanda Knox.

I really enjoyed reading this after only getting one side of the story for so long. After having seen a certain forensic show that has played endlessly on TV about this case I think many of us thought we all knew this case was pretty well, and it was a foregone conclusion. But after reading this book, I feel that are some very serious doubts and that they have been there all along. There was much that was kept hidden. I so enjoy when more facts are brought out that bring a fuller picture to light. The local cops were so focused on the husband that they never checked his ex-girlfriend's alibi for months, and by then memories were not fresh. By that time they didn't believe anything she said or her witnesses, of course. My thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my unbiased review. Thanks for reading.

When I write a book review, I always try to do it as soon as I've finished reading the book. The book and my thoughts are fresh in my mind, and I find it easier to write the review immediately. As soon as I finished this book, I came to Amazon to write my review but found I couldn't. I just couldn't. I felt like i had the worst case of PMS ever...tears in my eyes, profound sadness, extreme anger, some sorrow, depression, etc. So, instead, I went and took a nice, hot bath and played with my dog. Its been about an hour since I finished reading the book and I'm ready to write my review now.

I live less than an hour from where this story took place (In fact, I live in the same town that Patty stayed in a women's shelter at one time) yet I hadn't heard of the case or just didn't remember it AT ALL when I sat down earlier this year to watch the Keith Morrison Dateline special. I actually had been channel surfing and saw the title of the special "Murder in Lehigh County" and once I confirmed it was Lehigh, PA close to where I live, I watched it. I can say with 100% honesty that I watched it with a completely open mind since I had never heard of the case or ANY of the people involved. I do think the show did a good job of showing both sides of the story, but when it ended, I was confident that the right person was behind bars for the murders of Joann and Alex Katrinak though I believed Andy should be behind bars as well. (I WILL say that had I been on the jury and heard only the info of the case provided by the Morrison show, I would have had to vote NOT GUILTY. While I believed Patricia Rorrer had murdered them, I wouldn't have been able to say 'beyond a reasonable doubt') And that was the end of it for me. I didn't think about the case again until a few days ago when a friend asked if I was familiar with the case. She had just watched the Forensic Files episode of the case (I never saw it) and she too believed Patty was guilty. We discussed it briefly, and for the heck of it, I Googled Patty's name and saw some recent articles about the hair testing. Then I saw that this book had been released last month so I bought it. And I assumed that by the time i finished reading it, i would probably belong to some anti-Patty Rorrer Facebook pages, the same way I belong to a bunch of anti-Casey Anthony pages.

WRONG.

By chapter 6, even before the book went into detail about Patty, (it was focused mainly on Andy, Joann and their family/friends at this point) I had NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER of Patty's innocence. And I was stunned that I came to that conclusion, even before hearing her side of things. But, my opinion never changed throughout the rest of the book. I'm not going to go into specific details as I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't read the book and quite honestly, there are just too damn many reasons for me to do into about WHY Patty is NOT guilty of the murders of Joann and Alex.

I mentioned at the beginning that I had tears in my eyes and was also angry. Still am. Obviously, the fact that an innocent woman has been thrown in prison and had her life yanked away from her is the main reason I'm so upset and mad. I'm extremely angry that a daughter hasn't had her mother in her life for decades as well. It goes without saying I'm angry that 2 innocent people lost their lives for NO reason. I'm beyond disgusted that a murderer walks free. And I'm disgusted and appalled that people from my state-a state that I love-knowingly and intentionally sent an innocent woman to prison for her entire life. I have no doubt the real killer sleeps like a baby each and every night. Anyone who can brutally slaughter another human the way Joann was slaughtered and leave a 3 month old outside to die (keep in mind...a 3 month old who was far too young to be able to identify his mother's killer -his murderer could have and should have spared his life) is a souless monster who probably pats himself on the back for a job well done every night. But for the life of me, I don't understand how the ELECTED OFFICIALS of my state who knowingly and intentionally lied, cheated and tampered with evidence can live with themselves on a daily basis. They took Patty's life away from her-they intentionally put an innocent woman behind bars and let a killer go free. How they can live with themselves is beyond me. Patty may be alive but in a way, they murdered her when they took her life away and falsely sent her to prison.

I'm still stunned about everything that happened in this case. It truly is like a bad Lifetime movie. Its hard to believe in this great country of ours, Patty Rorrer was treated and screwed over the way that she was and continues to be. There is NO way Patty murderd Joann and Alex. NONE. And there is SO SO SO much evidence to prove that. This is one of those horrible instances where our legal system failed and failed miserably.

This is a MUST READ book. I'm hoping many read this book and somehow, someway, there will be a way for us to help free Patty Rorrer. I thought that by the time I finished the book, I'd belong to an anti-Patty Facebook page. I'm on my way to Facebook to find a PRO Patty Facebook page to join so I can find a way to attempt to help free this incredibly innocent woman.

Patty, my sincere apologies for believing you were a cold blooded killer. I was SO incredibly wrong. Tammy, you did a wonderful job of telling Patty's story and I thank you for that.